Date

Embargo Period

Keywords

Language

English

Disciplines

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Library and Information Science | Music

Description/Abstract

At first glance the Syracuse University Audio Archive and Edison Rerecording Laboratory looks like an antique shop. Old phonographs, cylinders, posters of a by-gone era are everywhere; there is even a relief of the Victor dog. But there are great differences in action and atmosphere from an antique shop, for at the Archive the "relics" are living machines, and the ancient cylinders are taking on a modern, full-toned life. Here, modern techniques of cleaning, reprocessing and re-recording are giving new sounds for old. Here, the staff is finding ways for the sounds of the past to function as realities in the present, and they are preserving them to continue as useful aids for the future.